Mixed fortunes Mother Nature moves in many ways, reflected in recent weeks by the fortunes of the young birds and around our home. Our Swallow pair, as mentioned in the last blog, produced three chicks. However a couple of days after hatching, we saw almost three days of continuous rain - a real rarity in these parts, despite what most uninformed folk think about 'Scottish weather'. The lack of flying insects in such weather, plus the parent birds themselves getting wet and returning to the nest, this chilling the chicks, all combined to mean the youngsters were shortlived. A real shame, but it's only nature. Ospreys - busy right now feeding their families At the other end of the scale, in terms of size and fortune, are our local Osprey chicks. The two nearest nests to us both have good sized chicks, and is testimony to the new parenting team on both. The closest nest has a new female (who replaced the late Green 5B, known as 'Beatrice' to tho